Tag Archives: Festival de Confolens

On a lovely Spring day, we tackled Boucle 42 right in the north of the Charente…

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Confolens is such a vibrant town with so much going on, we love the salvage yard there as we’re still renovating our house, the river makes the whole town feel really atmospheric and there are loads of great eateries.

And of course, in August, the whole town becomes a throng of people and culture with the annual festival – drawing in excess of 12,000 people each year.

We opted for cycling route option C which was a challenging 41 km’s but takes in some stunning sites.

First stop is St Germain de Confolens, somewhere we deliver to each year and is just super – an old picturesque town dominated by the stunning castle on the hill and the river running through the centre.

After St Germain, we headed for Esse, a lovely little town with a really cute Mairie…

And a 12th century church – called Saint-Etienne…

Cycling out of Esse towards Brillac, we came to the magnificent Pont Binot, over the river Vienne.

This is a perfect picnic spot and a place to rest awhile so we were so glad we had bought croissants in Confolens before we set off.

Close to the bridge, we were also rewarded with a wonderful old Gaulois village which has been painstakingly recreated using old materials and techniques.

After Brillac, the next reasonable sized town is Lesterps with it’s wonderful church, a really pretty little place with another coffee stop as well – perfect!

After LesTerps, the final stretch is really rural and varied, passing through lovely ‘hamlets’ such as Le Cluzeau, Chez Pougeard and Brunie and a variety of forest and lovely lanes.

It’s a wonderful time of the year with wild primroses and cowslips everywhere and we even heard our first cuckoo!!

Then cycle back into Confolens… the buildings hugging the river are really stunning and we were so glad we plumped for the longer route. Although we were very glad to stretch our legs with a little stroll around the town!